Printed circuit (PC) boards have found increasing application in electrical and electronic equipment of all kinds. The electrical circuits formed on these PC boards, like larger scale, conventional electrical circuits, need protection against electrical overvoltage. This protection is typically provided by commonly known electrostatic discharge devices that are physically secured to the PC board.
Examples of such a devices include silicon diodes and metal oxide varistor (MOV) devices. However, there are several problems with these devices. First, there are numerous aging problems associated with these types of devices, as is well known. Second, these types of devices can experience catastrophic failures, also as is well known. Third, these types of devices may burn or fail during a short mode situation. Numerous other disadvantages come to mind when using these devices during the manufacture of a PC board.
It has been found in the past that certain types of materials can provide protection against fast transient overvoltage pulses within electronic circuitry. These materials at least include those types of materials found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,097,834, 4,726,991, 4,977,357, and 5,262,754. However, the time and costs associated with incorporating and effectively using these materials in microelectronic circuitry is and has been significant. The present invention is provided to alleviate and solve these and other problems.